Generations are changing, the pontiff added, and the Church needed to adapt the way it spoke to them, being "careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them".

Francis, who was proclaimed TIME magazine's Person of the Year for his attempts to broaden the Catholic Church's inclusivity and focus on issues of poverty, appeared to reach out to the gay community in July when he told reporters: “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?”